Current Event: Evacuation Orders Though hurricanes have had a devastating impact on the United States over the past months, another disaster type that has been causing problems across several states is wildfires. One of the most recent wildfires that is still occurring is in southwest Colorado. The wildfire started on June 1st and the cause is currently unknown, but the extreme drought that is heavily affecting the southwest region of the country could have been a factor. Though the fire has…
Buffalo Soldiers were chosen to protect the first National Parks, 1886-1914. From 1886 to 1914, the Buffalo Soldiers assisted with the protection of the National Parks, in particular Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. However, there is little information describing much about their service as park rangers there other than the benefits they brought to the parks. There is no clear reason as to why these soldiers were sent to guard the prestigious parks, instead of the white soldiers that were…
Levy believes that the social structure of wolves drastically changes the functions of an ecosystem. Gordon Haber was tracking a wolf pack that had been around for 40 years until his plane crashed on the Toklat River located near the Denali National Park, Alaska, that October. The sudden death of Gordon silenced one of the most well-known and controversial advocates for the protection of wolves. He was known to be an independent biologist that…
Minnesota, the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", actually boasts about 11,842 bodies of water that have an area over 10 acres. The relative concentration of lakes increases as you travel north with what might typically be considered the beginning of "lake country" starting on an imaginary line drawn through the center of the state stretching from Alexandria to the west to the famous Lake Mille Lacs to the east. If you came to this page looking for information to help you plan a Minnesota fishing getaway…
The Arctic Refuge Jimmy Carter in his essay has comprehensively explained how arctic wild life has it's profound significance.It is not only the country's heritage but it also is important to people around the globe . Many species of wild life have occupied their habitats in these regions . This has created a natural wilderness . Jimmy Carter has explained this wilderness by his own vivid experience . He has portrayed the vast forms of species which over the time have accumulated there . For…
The top 1/3 of a particular mountain in Yellowstone contains a large population of white bark pine trees and about twenty grizzly bears. Over about twenty years, average temperatures get significantly warmer due to pollution and climate change. As modeled by the diagram, warmer temperatures lead to an increase in the population of white bark pine infesting beetles. An increase in the beetles overwhelms the defense systems of the white bark pine trees, and they are completely wiped out from the…
Bos bison, or the American bison, is the largest land mammal native to North America. It is placed in the same genus, Bos, as the domestic cattle. However, some taxonomists categorize it in the genus Bison, arguing that there is a substantial number of differences to separate it from domestic cattle. The American bison can be separated into two subspecies: B. Bison bison and B. Bison athabascae. B. Bison bison, or the plains bison, is more common in western United States. The plains bison also…
Now, thanks to severe winter weather, they're starving - and leaving the park searching for food. The starvation of bison is not an accident of nature but the intended consequence of a disastrous National Park Service policy. Yellowstone's wildlife hubbub began early in this century, when overly zealous protection by park managers allowed elk and bison populations to explode. Each winter, thousands of elk fled the park to be shot by hunters at the boundary at a place known by 1910 as the…
A herd of wild bison has been reintroduced to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, marking the first time that bison have roamed this part of Canada since they were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century. Parks Canada — the Canadian government agency that manages national parks, conservation areas and historical sites — relocated the 16 bison, which primarily include pregnant females, to the remote Panther Valley in Banff National Park, the Calgary Herald reported. Initially, the…
with high winds and a lack of proper monitoring of what started out as a small fire in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, became an unprecedented catastrophe for the city of Gatlinburg and portions of Pigeon Forge. In an area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), called Chimney Tops, a wildfire broke out (some claim it was started by kids), on November 23, 2016. Park personnel, not only failed to monitor this fire during the next several evenings, but later discovered on…